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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
Harare City Council is now seeking a new investor for the construction of a waste to energy plant at Pomona Dumpsite after a $100 million deal it had clinched collapsed following the expiry of the tender while it was still before the then State Procurement Board (SPB).

Council had shortlisted six companies for the construction of the waste management plant at Pomona Dumpsite, which will generate electricity, prevent diseases such as cancer and fire  outbreaks.

The SPB was supposed to adjudicate the tender, which was submitted early last year, but it expired before the process.

The city has now been told to restart the process and follow provisions of the Joint Venture Act, which requires the city to send a proposal to the Joint Venture Unit (JVU) following the expiry of the term of office of SPB.

The JVU is responsible for considering project proposals submitted to it and assess whether or not they are affordable to the Government or any of its parastatals.

Government also appointed a new regulatory authority — Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe — to deal with State procurement following the expiry of the term of office of SPB.

It is believed that Government had been losing public funds through inefficient and ineffective procurement processes, which often resulted in the acquisition of substandard goods.

Acting town clerk Eng Hosiah Chisango confirmed the position, saying the city was restarting the process.

“I can confirm that we are now retendering. The tender was affected by the changes, which now require us to go through the Joint Venture Unit instead of the State Procurement Board,” he said.

In April this year, Harare Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni disclosed that the Pomona waste to energy tender “expired in the bureaucratic hands of the expired State Procurement                                      Board”.

Fire outbreaks at Pomona Dumpsite have become a perennial problem and council wanted a firm with a financial muscle and technical capacity in the joint venture to solve the problem with a $100 million capital injection.

The city intends to create a properly engineered landfill as the dumpsite has been used for the last 30 years.

Council and its prospective partner will initially mine the given area before putting up all the proper requirements for a landfill, while they continue with the waste-to-energy project

Harare was hoping to start the project by mid-year last year.

It has previously engaged an Italian firm over the plant but the firm chickened out at the stage of implementation.